> Hey, George:
> LStart the party. How do you take a Christ-centered approach to the
> science-religion problem?

Terry has provided a link to JASA/PSCF articles, most of which deal with
some aspects of this approach. Here I'll note very briefly the way in which
a
few issues can be trated with such an approach.
1. Natural theology: God is known first through God's self-revelation
in
the history of Israel which culminates in the cross-resurrection event.
Scientific knowledge of the world is able to tell us something about God &
God's
relationship with the world only in light of this revelation. But in this
light
God is to be discerned in the universe as the crucified and risen one.

Shuan wrote:
So where are the fingerprints demanded by Mr. Morton? :)
S
2. Divine action (providence): God's hiddenness in his self-revelation
in
the cross suggests that we should not expect to observe God's activity by
scientific means. This requirement can be satisfied by a model of divine
action
in which God acts through natural process and voluntarily limits action to
what
can be achieved through lawful natural processes.

Shuan:
Agreed, but would modify by adding " God USUALLY acts through natural
processes".
Despite Mr. Hicks pinning the Liberal label on me, i'm not
ready to rule
out
miracles yet

3. Cosmology: As much as possible we will try to understand the origin
and
development of the universe theologically in terms of providence, as in 2.
Thus
we will be open to the possibility that matter/energy and space-time have
come
in a way that can be described by a correct theory of quantum gravity or
some
other scientific theory.

S Shuan:
H'mm, have to think about this. Hampered because I don't know
squat about
quantum mechanics. You physicists make things so freaking
complicated :).
I'm reading Davies's God and the New Physics. Maybe that will help.

4. Biological evolution: This too will be understood as an application
of
providence. The Incarnation means that God becomes a participant in the
evolutionary process and in its suffering and death. This provides a way of
dealing with questions of theodicy raised by natural selection. The fact
that
in the Incarnation the Word of God takes on our evolutionary relationships
provides one way of understanding how "all things" can be reconciled to God
"through the blood of his cross" (Col.1:20).

Shuan:
Kinda sounds similar to Jewish ideas about God's Shekinah
accompanying the
Jewish people into suffering and exile... but I've never
heard it applied
to
evolution. Talk about outside the box thinking

5) Environmental issues: The human commission to be God's
representative
in caring for creation is fulfilled first of all in Christ. Human
"dominion"
over creation is thus to be patterned after the servant lordship of Christ.
Shuan:
Good. also applicable is Gen.2:15 , which talks about
stewardship instead
of dominion

6) Bioethics: There are too many individual issues to summarize
briefly
here. But the both cross (which suggests that suffering and death are not
to be
avoided at all costs) and resurrection (which suggests that our hope is not
simply for holding on to life) provide some general guidelines.
Shuan:
I think the biggest ethical issues of the century are going
to be in this
area.
We should all start praying and thinking hard RIGHT NOW

7) History and the Future: The human _par excellence_ is not Adam &
Eve or
the first reflectively conscious hominids but Jesus Christ. Creation was
therefore not begun in a state of static perfection but in God's intention
was
to develop toward the plan hinted at in Eph.1:10. In the resurrection of
the
crucified we have a preview of God's ultimate future for the world, and the
church as the Body of Christ is the next stage of evolution toward that
goal.
Shuan:
If the Church as it currently exists is the next stage in
evolution, we are
facing extinction :).
I like your advocacy of the Irenean concept of the fall over the
Augustinian.
That is pretty bold for a Lutheran (If Luther is the father
of Lutheranism,
Augustine is its grandfather).
Maybe Dawkins is wrong, and theologians are good for
something after all :)
Thanks, George, for your thoughts.Wally has linked us
together as liberals,
and I am
honored to be in your company. Hopefully, you won't be too insulted at
being paired with a lawyer.